Ruthenium-catalyzed synthesis of N-substituted lactams by acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling of diols with primary amines.

Herein, we report the first example of synthesis of N-substituted lactams via an acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling of diols with primary amines in one step, which was enabled by combining Ru-3(CO)(12) with a hybrid N-heterocyclic carbene-phosphine-phosphine ligand as the catalyst.